Welcome to the first ever blog dedicated to two clumsy handymen, Pat & Mat! If you are wondering what this place is, here are a few quick pointers:
What are Pat & Mat?
Pat & Mat is a series of short stop motion animation films made in the Czech Republic, previously Czechoslovakia. It follows the two titular characters as they go through do-it-yourself-induced trouble in their apartments or houses. Immensely popular, it started in 1976 and 130 episodes have been filmed, with the most recent ones completed only this year.
ajetology?
... a je to! was the name of the first (and best) series in which these two characters starred. Ajetology is a name I made up on the spot to jokingly characterize this blog as the ultimate science on the series. In keeping with the two's do-it-yourself style (and to, shhh, hide the fact that I really don't have any experience in making websites), this blog has a bit of a bare-bones look.
What is this blog and why does it exist?
This blog serves as a place to discuss some interesting details about the series' production, characters, ideas and everything in between - it may well have been called Pat & Mat trivia. Its audience is primarily fans of Pat & Mat, people who have already watched some or all of the episodes, but if this site inspires someone to look up the series for the first time, I'll be more than glad.
I started it because I needed a place to put some of the knowledge I amassed about the series during all this time. The blog is intentionally written in English, not just because Croatian and English are the only languages I can write in, but because this series needs an international place for discussion about it as well (the majority so far have been from the Slavic world).
Who is the author of this blog?
My name is Marin Pažanin and I was born in 1997. I am a student from Split, Croatia. This is a fan's blog. I am in no way officially connected with Pat & Mat. All of the rights to the characters and episodes belong to their respective owners.
My Pat & Mat story
Before we delve into specific posts, I'd like to share my own story of how I became a fan of this series.
I was around 5 years old when my dad and myself found ourselves in one of the department stores near Split and in their VHS department. DVDs were still some way off our household at the time. Dad spotted a batch of Pat & Mat cassettes and handed one to me. 'You sure you don't know these guys? They were on TV many times. Pretty funny.' Not having a clue about that series, I accepted the gift and watched the thing at home.
Instantly I was hooked. The show was bizarrely hilarious and genius, something completely different from things I had seen before. I loved every bit of it. I then eagerly encouraged every other opportunity to go to that store and expand my Pat & Mat collection. Soon enough my 7 VHS, 35 episode collection was complete.
I must have watched every one of the casettes at least five times. Always the analytic, I watched them closely, remembering plot details and even writing down things such as production years. In other words, I was a bit of a Pat & Mat fanatic. My hairdresser at that age, who I still visit from time to time, was subjected to hearing plot summaries of certain episodes - because what better is there to talk about than a weird puppet series, right? People found my fascination funny, but somewhat cute. It somehow got to my teacher, who encouraged me to give a presentation on the series in the school library. A burning question I remember one of the classmates asked was: do Pat & Mat have four or five fingers? I also remember being unsure because the characters do have four fingers, but five in certain scenes. I must have led my classmates to several misconceptions about the series that time!
My self-absorbed bubble about this series burst while one day visiting my cousin. He, I believe affected by myself, was also a fan of the series and showed me a DVD of episodes his dad had obtained who knows where. It was a copy of the first Pat & Mat DVD, published in 1999. As I watched the characters repairing the gutter, making biscuits or playing billiards, I was perplexed. Unseen Pat & Mat episodes! Insane! It was, of course, the DVD with ten aiF episodes from the 1990s.
At that time the Internet was something I was beginning to get acquainted with and I went to search for more info online. I discovered the wonderful Pat & Mat fansite, which answered a lot of my questions. There was also the official site of aiF Studio as well. I discovered more episodes were produced in the early 2000s. They were yet to hit the Croatian DVD market and I bought the first ones when they came out.
This was around twelve years ago. Since that time I have followed the series with different intensities, but have never stopped being a fan and self-proclaimed expert. During the last year or so I again hit a period of closely watching this series and connecting with other people who do - because it still makes me laugh, even though I'm a slightly bigger guy now. This blog is what came out of it.
If this blog finds some readership, I would like to notify it that I have no idea how often it will get updated. A student's life is unpredictable and sometimes filled with many different obligations which could prevent me from updating it regularly.
In any case, thank you for visiting and have a pleasant stay! A je to!
What are Pat & Mat?
Pat & Mat is a series of short stop motion animation films made in the Czech Republic, previously Czechoslovakia. It follows the two titular characters as they go through do-it-yourself-induced trouble in their apartments or houses. Immensely popular, it started in 1976 and 130 episodes have been filmed, with the most recent ones completed only this year.
ajetology?
... a je to! was the name of the first (and best) series in which these two characters starred. Ajetology is a name I made up on the spot to jokingly characterize this blog as the ultimate science on the series. In keeping with the two's do-it-yourself style (and to, shhh, hide the fact that I really don't have any experience in making websites), this blog has a bit of a bare-bones look.
What is this blog and why does it exist?
This blog serves as a place to discuss some interesting details about the series' production, characters, ideas and everything in between - it may well have been called Pat & Mat trivia. Its audience is primarily fans of Pat & Mat, people who have already watched some or all of the episodes, but if this site inspires someone to look up the series for the first time, I'll be more than glad.
I started it because I needed a place to put some of the knowledge I amassed about the series during all this time. The blog is intentionally written in English, not just because Croatian and English are the only languages I can write in, but because this series needs an international place for discussion about it as well (the majority so far have been from the Slavic world).
Who is the author of this blog?
My name is Marin Pažanin and I was born in 1997. I am a student from Split, Croatia. This is a fan's blog. I am in no way officially connected with Pat & Mat. All of the rights to the characters and episodes belong to their respective owners.
My Pat & Mat story
Before we delve into specific posts, I'd like to share my own story of how I became a fan of this series.
I was around 5 years old when my dad and myself found ourselves in one of the department stores near Split and in their VHS department. DVDs were still some way off our household at the time. Dad spotted a batch of Pat & Mat cassettes and handed one to me. 'You sure you don't know these guys? They were on TV many times. Pretty funny.' Not having a clue about that series, I accepted the gift and watched the thing at home.
Instantly I was hooked. The show was bizarrely hilarious and genius, something completely different from things I had seen before. I loved every bit of it. I then eagerly encouraged every other opportunity to go to that store and expand my Pat & Mat collection. Soon enough my 7 VHS, 35 episode collection was complete.
I must have watched every one of the casettes at least five times. Always the analytic, I watched them closely, remembering plot details and even writing down things such as production years. In other words, I was a bit of a Pat & Mat fanatic. My hairdresser at that age, who I still visit from time to time, was subjected to hearing plot summaries of certain episodes - because what better is there to talk about than a weird puppet series, right? People found my fascination funny, but somewhat cute. It somehow got to my teacher, who encouraged me to give a presentation on the series in the school library. A burning question I remember one of the classmates asked was: do Pat & Mat have four or five fingers? I also remember being unsure because the characters do have four fingers, but five in certain scenes. I must have led my classmates to several misconceptions about the series that time!
My self-absorbed bubble about this series burst while one day visiting my cousin. He, I believe affected by myself, was also a fan of the series and showed me a DVD of episodes his dad had obtained who knows where. It was a copy of the first Pat & Mat DVD, published in 1999. As I watched the characters repairing the gutter, making biscuits or playing billiards, I was perplexed. Unseen Pat & Mat episodes! Insane! It was, of course, the DVD with ten aiF episodes from the 1990s.
At that time the Internet was something I was beginning to get acquainted with and I went to search for more info online. I discovered the wonderful Pat & Mat fansite, which answered a lot of my questions. There was also the official site of aiF Studio as well. I discovered more episodes were produced in the early 2000s. They were yet to hit the Croatian DVD market and I bought the first ones when they came out.
This was around twelve years ago. Since that time I have followed the series with different intensities, but have never stopped being a fan and self-proclaimed expert. During the last year or so I again hit a period of closely watching this series and connecting with other people who do - because it still makes me laugh, even though I'm a slightly bigger guy now. This blog is what came out of it.
If this blog finds some readership, I would like to notify it that I have no idea how often it will get updated. A student's life is unpredictable and sometimes filled with many different obligations which could prevent me from updating it regularly.
In any case, thank you for visiting and have a pleasant stay! A je to!
It is my theory that Pat and Mat are the last humans on earth. Crazy? Wait, hear me out. When do you EVER see another human being in any episode? Why do they never get into trouble with the police, or even just neighbours? They used dynamite to dig a pool! The answer: Because they are the last people left alive.
ReplyDeleteAnd whenever their houses become uninhabitable, as they inevitably always do, they move to the next appartment, or the next block of flats. This explains why they have lived in so many different houses and can start each story with a fresh home to "improve".
They are the only survivors of some terrible catastrophe. The poor souls are not aware of the truth. They have retreated into their own world of Do It Yourself. Their innocence has kept them sane.
Maybe it's a crackpot theory, but it explains EVERYTHING! And I cobbled this theory together myself and as every P&M fan knows, there is nothing better than the things you make yourself.
Hi, im also fan of Pat a Mat, same age as you and live in South Korea. Glad to find your blog!
ReplyDeleteThank you, always glad to make readers happy!
DeleteHi. I am also a fan of the Pat a Mat. I am from Czechia (the country of origin of these series), and I gotta say, I laughed a lot when I was watching these episodes. I also have a theory, which can be interesting.
ReplyDeleteIf you watched episode Vinaři/Vinári (Wine makers), there was a scene near the end, how both drank some kind of a moonshine, they made, to test it. When they drank it, they quickly turned towards the camera and orange vortex rings were coming from their eyes, accompanied with low pitched beeping in the background. After that, the objects on the screen got blurry, with background noises echoing. When Pat and Mat were back on screen (with screen being still blurry and background noises still echoing). They both were making slow uncoordinated moves and they were obviously struggling to keep balance. After few seconds their clones appeared on their side (behind them on camera) and Pat and Mat both fainted. Their clones looked at themselves, drank from their respective glasses. Other clones appeared in the same manner and the previous ones fainted. This cycle repeated, until credits rolled. To be honest, this scene really concerned me as a kid. When I saw it back then, I was like: "Oh my god! What's happening to them? What the hell did they drank?"
But nowadays, when I rewatched this scene. I think I understand, what's going on in it. The moonshine itself either had to be very strong, or it was made incorrectly. When Pat and Mat drank it, they either got poisoned or very drunk, and they both had an out-of-body experience, which can explain those vortex rings from their eyes, blurry screen, echoing background noises and their uncoordinated moves. They actually weren't themselves for a brief period of time (this is the best and simple way, how out-of-body experience can be explained). The fact, they both fainted, can be explained by the fact, that out-of-body experience is sometimes a guaranteed critical hit for individual's mental health. Some people either can't believe or can't accept, they had an out-of-body experience. Some people even get so overwhelmed by it, they can't take it anymore, and faint. The latter was the case for Pat and Mat, their mind got so overwhelmed by the out-of-body experience, they couldn't take it anymore and fainted.
The clones sequence can be some kind of sattirical illustration, that they both somehow wanted more and more, causing themselves to ha have out-of-body experience repeatedly, but it wasn't enough for them. They kept doing it over and over. They were both stuck in infinite loop.
Interesting theory, but I have a much simpler one. When you get drunk, you see double.
Delete